Bringing Your BibleWorks User Content to Logos

Phil Gons (Logos)
Phil Gons (Logos) Administrator, Logos Employee Posts: 3,799
edited November 20 in English Forum

Since BibleWorks is closing, many BibleWorks users are trying to figure out what to do with their notes and other user content they’ve invested into the platform for years or decades.

We are working on a tool that will allow you to import your BibleWorks notes and some other user content into Logos. We don’t yet have a timeframe for making this publicly available or a complete list of the content we’ll allow you to import. We’re still investigating the possibilities. We’ll share updates here in the forums when we have more information about what you’ll be able to import and when it will be ready. If you’re interested in helping us test the importer before it’s publicly available, let us know.

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Comments

  • Jacob Hantla
    Jacob Hantla MVP Posts: 3,871

    This is wonderful news. Thanks, Phil. I know a few people who are scared about all they have in BibleWorks and this will be welcome news. 

    Jacob Hantla
    Pastor/Elder, Grace Bible Church
    gbcaz.org

  • Richard Villanueva
    Richard Villanueva Member Posts: 510 ✭✭

    wow!  this would be huge. 

    I have a friend who is 20+ year user and has been heavily invested in BW.  Keep us posted!

    MBPro'12 / i5 / 8GB // 3.0 Scholars (Purple) / L6 & L7 Platinum, M&E Platinum, Anglican Bronze, P&C Silver / L8 Platinum, Academic Pro

  • Phil Gons (Logos)
    Phil Gons (Logos) Administrator, Logos Employee Posts: 3,799

    Thanks for the feedback. We'd appreciate it if you'd share this post with any BibleWorks friends you think might want to know.

  • Ben
    Ben Member Posts: 1,771 ✭✭✭

    "The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of Conservatives is to prevent mistakes from being corrected."- G.K. Chesterton

  • Dan Francis
    Dan Francis Member Posts: 5,339 ✭✭✭

    Thanks Phil... I was never a BW user but it is great to see you and Accordance working to make sure BW users are not left behind. 

    -dan

  • Beloved Amodeo
    Beloved Amodeo Member Posts: 4,181 ✭✭✭

    I am not a BW user but i applaud FL leadership in this arena.

    Meanwhile, Jesus kept on growing wiser and more mature, and in favor with God and his fellow man.

    International Standard Version. (2011). (Lk 2:52). Yorba Linda, CA: ISV Foundation.

    MacBook Pro MacOS Sequoia 15.2 1TB SSD

  • Dan Phillips
    Dan Phillips Member Posts: 330 ✭✭

    Interesting. When Logos talked with me as a potential reviewer, years ago, I expressly asked about the BW verse-by-verse notes feature, which I prize extremely highly (https://goo.gl/tHQIV). Heiser was on the phone, and were you as well? The answer I got was "No."

    So, to be clear, is Logos looking forward to providing that feature now?

    Win10 home; 32GB RAM; i7 - 10700 CPU @ 3. 80 GHz (10th gen, 8 cores); GTX 950 Video Card (2GB); SSD


  • David Ames
    David Ames Member Posts: 2,977 ✭✭✭

    Since BibleWorks is closing, many BibleWorks users are trying to figure out what to do with their notes and other user content they’ve invested into the platform for years or decades.

    We are working on a tool that will allow you to import your BibleWorks notes and some other user content into Logos. 

    Please note that they said "their notes and other user content" [things that you added].

    They did not say anything about credit for BW resources owned. Without the resources the notes maybe useless.   

    But perhaps special discounts on Logos 8 base packages depending on the size of your BW library and how big a Logos package you buy? 

  • Graham Criddle
    Graham Criddle MVP Posts: 32,625

    Interesting. When Logos talked with me as a potential reviewer, years ago, I expressly asked about the BW verse-by-verse notes feature, which I prize extremely highly (https://goo.gl/tHQIV). Heiser was on the phone, and were you as well? The answer I got was "No."

    So, to be clear, is Logos looking forward to providing that feature now?

    Im not a Bibleworks user so I don’t know the specifics of what this feature does.

    Logos provides, and has for a long time, the capability to write notes and link them to verses or passages. These are then visible in all versified resources.

    What specific Bibleworks notes-related features are you looking for in Logos?

  • Dan Phillips
    Dan Phillips Member Posts: 330 ✭✭

    1. Thanks, I do know that. It was true when I had the phone conversation I referred to.

    2. The ones I explain, describe, and illustrate in the article I linked to.

    Win10 home; 32GB RAM; i7 - 10700 CPU @ 3. 80 GHz (10th gen, 8 cores); GTX 950 Video Card (2GB); SSD


  • Dan Francis
    Dan Francis Member Posts: 5,339 ✭✭✭

    In the same way that I do not believe Accordance's cross grade gives a completely identical set of works to what you own in BW I believe Logos is working on a way to import into their ecosystem the essence of your notes for use in Logos. One cannot expect Logos to magically gain new features it has never had but preserving your work in a accessible fashion is laudable even if it is not quite as good as you may have had it in BW. And who knows notes may be beefed up in the upcoming 8 release to make them more functional this I do not know.

    -dan

  • Phil Gons (Logos)
    Phil Gons (Logos) Administrator, Logos Employee Posts: 3,799

    Interesting. When Logos talked with me as a potential reviewer, years ago, I expressly asked about the BW verse-by-verse notes feature, which I prize extremely highly (https://goo.gl/tHQIV). Heiser was on the phone, and were you as well? The answer I got was "No."

    So, to be clear, is Logos looking forward to providing that feature now?

    Dan, we've been working for the last year or so on a brand new notes system. You're welcome to try it out at https://app.logos.com/tools/notes?layout=one or in the desktop app at https://ref.ly/logos4/NotesTool, after you join the notes beta testing group.

    One of the things we're planning to implement in the future is the ability to link a resource to a notes panel, which will allow you to quickly see and capture notes on your location in that panel. This should be very similar to how BibleWorks works. In the mean time, there is already the ability to capture notes based on the location in your active panel, through either the right-click context menu or from the new note dropdown menu.

    I don't have any recollection of the phone call, but that was then and this is now. :)

  • Phil Gons (Logos)
    Phil Gons (Logos) Administrator, Logos Employee Posts: 3,799

    They did not say anything about credit for BW resources owned.

    We are working on one or more packages for BibleWorks users who might be looking to move to Logos. We would heavily discount them to make them as affordable as possible and minimize the sting of repurchasing content in another platform.

    But that is a separate matter, as you point out, from moving your notes and user content over to Logos, which could be done for free.

    Without the resources the notes maybe useless.

    As I understand it, most BibleWorks users take notes on Bible passages, so those should come into Logos nicely. Other notes would also come in fine; they just wouldn't be anchored to the resources they were taken on. But I'm not sure BibleWorks allows you to anchor notes to non-Bible resources, do they? It's been a while since I've used it.

  • Beloved Amodeo
    Beloved Amodeo Member Posts: 4,181 ✭✭✭

    1. Thanks, I do know that. It was true when I had the phone conversation I referred to.

    2. The ones I explain, describe, and illustrate in the article I linked to.

    Dan, 

    With all your experience and enthusiasm, my question to you is why not be a Beta tester for the new notes feature for Logos? 

    Meanwhile, Jesus kept on growing wiser and more mature, and in favor with God and his fellow man.

    International Standard Version. (2011). (Lk 2:52). Yorba Linda, CA: ISV Foundation.

    MacBook Pro MacOS Sequoia 15.2 1TB SSD

  • Mark
    Mark Member Posts: 2,643 ✭✭✭

    One of the things we're planning to implement in the future is the ability to link a resource to a notes panel,

    Would there be any possibility of having a  notes symbol next to a verse, so that we can hover over or click on the symbol and see a pop up of our note?  This would be so valuable.

  • mike
    mike Member Posts: 2,097 ✭✭✭

     

    We are working on a tool that will allow you to import your BibleWorks notes and some other user content into Logos.

    [Y]

  • Phil Gons (Logos)
    Phil Gons (Logos) Administrator, Logos Employee Posts: 3,799

    Mark said:

    One of the things we're planning to implement in the future is the ability to link a resource to a notes panel,

    Would there be any possibility of having a  notes symbol next to a verse, so that we can hover over or click on the symbol and see a pop up of our note?  This would be so valuable.

    That's the default behavior (in both the old and the new notes systems). Notes that are anchored to a Bible reference will show an icon (of your choice) next to the verse reference. You can disable it if you want (or change the icon and color), but the default behavior is to show an icon.

    In the image below, I've customized my icons to be green question marks.

    Is this what you're referring to, or did you have something else in mind?

  • Simon’s Brother
    Simon’s Brother Member Posts: 6,816 ✭✭✭

    https://goo.gl/tHQIV 

    Dan, for the link to be active you need to type a space after it.

    1. Thanks, I do know that. It was true when I had the phone conversation I referred to.

    2. The ones I explain, describe, and illustrate in the article I linked to.

  • Mark
    Mark Member Posts: 2,643 ✭✭✭

    Is this what you're referring to, or did you have something else in mind?

    Thanks Phil.  I guess I was doing notes all wrong.  I had never seen this ability.  Now I will use it.

    My only question is whether it is possible to save all notes one has in his/her Bible in a Word Doc for back up and use for writing sermons or papers.  In other words, can all notes be exported to an external doc?  I wrote notes in my Bible when I was young and they are valuable to me but not transferable...so it is important to me to be able to export ALL notes in the Bible or in a book of the Bible into a separate document.

  • Phil Gons (Logos)
    Phil Gons (Logos) Administrator, Logos Employee Posts: 3,799

    Mark said:

    My only question is whether it is possible to save all notes one has in his/her Bible in a Word Doc for back up and use for writing sermons or papers.  In other words, can all notes be exported to an external doc?

    Yes. In the current system, open a notes document and type Ctrl+P or select Print/Export from the panel menu. You can export your notes to a variety of formats. We plan to support this in the new system as well.

    Mark said:

    I wrote notes in my Bible when I was young and they are valuable to me but not transferable...so it is important to me to be able to export ALL notes in the Bible or in a book of the Bible into a separate document.

    Same here. I've had on my list for a while to manually move them into Logos, but I've not gotten around to it yet. I've often wondered if there'd be a market for a service that would take print notes and highlights from books and transfer them to Logos for you. But I'm not sure the economics would make sense.

  • Bruce Dunning
    Bruce Dunning MVP Posts: 11,142

    I've had on my list for a while to manually move them into Logos, but I've not gotten around to it yet. I've often wondered if there'd be a market for a service that would take print notes and highlights from books and transfer them to Logos for you. But I'm not sure the economics would make sense.

    I can't comment on whether the economics make sense but this feature would be amazing to have. [Y]

    Using adventure and community to challenge young people to continually say "yes" to God

  • Mark
    Mark Member Posts: 2,643 ✭✭✭

    Yes. In the current system, open a notes document and type Ctrl+P or select Print/Export from the panel menu. You can export your notes to a variety of formats. We plan to support this in the new system as well.

    Let me make sure I understand this correctly:  If I have thousands of notes all over the Bible in Logos note format, and I want to save all those thousands of notes in one file, I open a notes document and type Ctrl+P or select Print/Export from the menu and it will save all those thousands of notes in one file?  And they would be in order (from Genesis to Revelation)? And if I had notes from a book resource (something I rarely would do, but I can see a point in doing it), I can save all those notes also?  OR would ctrl+p save all notes ever taken in the Logos program into one file?

    Mark

  • Graham Criddle
    Graham Criddle MVP Posts: 32,625

    Mark said:

    If I have thousands of notes all over the Bible in Logos note format, and I want to save all those thousands of notes in one file, I open a notes document and type Ctrl+P or select Print/Export from the menu and it will save all those thousands of notes in one file? 

    That is correct. But if some of the Notes in your Bible are held in different Notes Documents, this export process will need to be repeated for each Notes Document.

    Mark said:

    And they would be in order (from Genesis to Revelation)?

    That is an option - you can sort Notes within a Notes Document by a range of parameters

    The sort option selected here will determine the order the Notes are saved in the file.

    Mark said:

    And if I had notes from a book resource (something I rarely would do, but I can see a point in doing it), I can save all those notes also?

    Yes you could

    Mark said:

    OR would ctrl+p save all notes ever taken in the Logos program into one file?

    It would only export all of the Notes within a particular Notes Document.

    One detail - it may already be clear but I wanted to clarify. When referring to "file" above, this is an external file (such as a Microsoft Word document) and not a Logos Notes Document.

  • Bill Moore
    Bill Moore Member Posts: 975 ✭✭✭

    Since BibleWorks is closing, many BibleWorks users are trying to figure out what to do with their notes and other user content they’ve invested into the platform for years or decades.

    We are working on a tool that will allow you to import your BibleWorks notes and some other user content into Logos. We don’t yet have a timeframe for making this publicly available or a complete list of the content we’ll allow you to import. We’re still investigating the possibilities. We’ll share updates here in the forums when we have more information about what you’ll be able to import and when it will be ready. If you’re interested in helping us test the importer before it’s publicly available, let us know.

    (1) This is an encouraging development for BW users. I applaud Faithlife for doing it.

    (2) I had not been interested in the Logos notes feature before this thread. I had feared that if Logos closed down, my notes would be in jeopardy. Understanding something of the exporting feature is changing my mind.

    Pastor, Cornerstone Baptist Church, Clinton, SC

  • Phil Gons (Logos)
    Phil Gons (Logos) Administrator, Logos Employee Posts: 3,799

    I've had on my list for a while to manually move them into Logos, but I've not gotten around to it yet. I've often wondered if there'd be a market for a service that would take print notes and highlights from books and transfer them to Logos for you. But I'm not sure the economics would make sense.

    I can't comment on whether the economics make sense but this feature would be amazing to have. Yes

    How much would you be willing to pay to have your notes and highlights from an old Bible transferred? What if the book was damaged or destroyed in the process?

  • DAL
    DAL Member Posts: 10,665 ✭✭✭

    It maybe a dumb question but since I don’t know I’ll ask anyway:

    Wasn’t Bible Works ran on the Libronix system? There was this Nelson’s Reference Pastor‘s library or something that was sold separately before it came to Logos and it used Libronix as the platform for its content.

    Maybe someone remembers. It was real cheap too until Zondervan took over it.

    DAL

  • Phil Gons (Logos)
    Phil Gons (Logos) Administrator, Logos Employee Posts: 3,799

    DAL said:

    Wasn’t Bible Works ran on the Libronix system?

    No.

    DAL said:

    There was this Nelson’s Reference Pastor‘s library or something that was sold separately before it came to Logos and it used Libronix as the platform for its content.

    That was unrelated to BibleWorks.

  • Mark
    Mark Member Posts: 2,643 ✭✭✭

    How much would you be willing to pay to have your notes and highlights from an old Bible transferred? What if the book was damaged or destroyed in the process?

    I would be surprised if there as a market.  I would not pay for a service because of the way I wrote notes in a Bible...I would need to do it myself.  But others may find a service useful

  • Mark Hoffman
    Mark Hoffman Member Posts: 66

    Adding my interest to this possibility...

  • John Goodman
    John Goodman Member Posts: 1,706 ✭✭✭

    Notes aside, what about the idea of high resolution off-line manuscripts?  can we get those in logos?

    גַּם־חֹשֶׁךְ֮ לֹֽא־יַחְשִׁ֪יךְ מִ֫מֶּ֥ךָ וְ֭לַיְלָה כַּיּ֣וֹם יָאִ֑יר כַּ֝חֲשֵׁיכָ֗ה כָּאוֹרָֽה